Saturday, September 22, 2012

“It is a
world which survives only in black-and-white photographs, and in the memories
of the people who were there: the world of European motorcycle road-racing more
than 50 years ago, in the 15 or so years after the end of World War Two.”

Thus Don Cox introduces us to a fascinating photographic and literary journey with the men and occasional women who travelled half way around the world to the hub of motorcycle road racing with often only a mate or wife for company ...to take to the road in a converted truck as their "motorhome", camping in the paddocks of the race circuits through the UK and Europe...being part of the "Continental Circus" - a happy go lucky band of motorcycle racers.

For us from the antipodes reading this book, the it seems the Anzacs have arrived again.

"Circus Life" as Don so aptly named his voluminous, long overdue story, has been a love that has consumed him for some 8 years...

As we discussed when I visited him at his home the other evening to borrow the copy I've used for this review.....supplies of the book are imminent into Sydney, with a book launch on 9th October 2012, but more of this later.....When do you have all the information? When have you interviewed all who were there or had photographs to share?

Judging by the copy I've seen, Don has got it together right now....

Don Cox has been known to motorcycle enthusiasts for many years now, publishing several books and writing articles for Australian motorcycling journals including "Two Wheels"...and I mentioned these in an earlier preview of "Circus Life"

I'm looking forward to reading the whole book, the over 500 pages, in detail when I purchase a copy shortly, having to regrettably return Don's pre-release copy after a day.

How to get a copy?

The RRP for the book is AUD$99 with postage within Australia of $12,

Plimsoll Street Publishing Pty Ltd now presents… Circus Life, Australian Motorcycle Racers In Europe In The 1950s Stocks will be in the Sydney mailing house by the first week of October. Ordering is easy! Please email circuslifebook@gmail.com and include your mailing address. How to pay… Via Paypal. circuslifebook@gmail.com is the account name. Or, directly to the Plimsoll Street Publishing account, BSB 032 298 account no. 348961. Please put your name in the Description box. Or, send a cheque/money order in Australian dollars to: Plimsoll Street Publishing Pty Ltd, PO Box 356, Haberfield, NSW 2045 AUD$99 plus AUD$12 post & packing; handling for books in Australia, mailed from Sydney.

Don has made arrangements for those in the UK and presumably Europe to receive a posted copy from the UK, but you need to email him first on.....

circuslifebook@gmail.com

He will reply with the postage costs to you and payment will be to his Paypal account as above....

So, lets have a brief peek at some pages from the book....a whetting of the appetite as they say....

Amusing incidents such as below bring a chuckle, but also show the last serious use of a works Velocette engine,gearbox and front brake from 1952 factory racers to historians.

Harry Hinton jnr and Eric Hinton....

Washing day in the paddock.....

“The
experience of the New Zealand Riders largely matched that of the Australians on
the continental Circus in the 1950s, right down to sharing digs at Rose Villa
in the Isle of Man. The only noticeable difference was that the NZers sailed to
England via the Panama Canal rather than Suez, and travelled further than the
Australian to race in Europe.

The Shakey
Isles produced an extraordinary number of internationals per head of
population, with many success stories…”

I've said before that if I was restricted to one motorcycle book on my bookshelf it would be Phil Irving's Autobiography, a book always beside my bed that is often opened randomly and read before I retire for the night....

There looks like another serious contender...looks like two volumes beside me from now on....!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Retired now and having a large archive of instrumentation detail, drawings, exploded spare parts stuff for most motorcycles, I've been slowly featuring items on this blog....see Smiths in the search facility for British items, Motometer for BMW post 1969 and now some VDO information to cover the BMW motorcycles pre 1969. That is...R25,26,27 R50, R50S....R60, R68,R69,R69S etc and the information is applicable to other German motorcycles using this instrument type...Horex, Zundapp etc..The 80mm diameter speedometer and 60mm diameter tachometer are covered.Its a bit of a mixed bag of assorted facts...sure to help somebody...

The type of BMW covered by this information....

From a 1950's VDO catalogue...general speedometer information of the type.

BMW /2 speedometer location.

BMW model with instrument gearing and final drive ratio.

DQs notes made over the years....

Internal odometer gearsets for the various speedo ratios.

VDO information on internal odometer gearing.

Various BMW models covered.

Exploded spare part view of the speedometer.

DQs notes on the trip reset shaft which often suffered rusting due to water entry around the reset knob. The method of construction to prevent water entry was very poor and didn't work. Often I had to make new shafts and or trip knobs.

60mm mechanical tachometer information.

Prior to the use of VDO speedometers, BMW used the German Veigel brand. Veigel was taken over by VDO in the 1950's.I'm not covering these in this post.

Monday, September 3, 2012

I've posted several times, pics taken by me while Judy and I lived in the UK 1974-75, following our overland trip to Europe in early 1974 by BMW R50/5.

I've some more and they include photos taken while at a hillclimb at Prescott in Gloucestershire and include mostly car oriented shots...no excuse, I found it interesting and rode our BMW R75/5 to the venue...

Following some pics of a visit to the late Jeff Clew, motorcycling journalist and Velocette man...he wheeled out his KDT speedway Velocette......

Then a pic or two from a visit to Brooklands with the late Chas.Mortimer Snr.which I've done a post on earlier.

Finishing off with several pics from Arundel Castle....but my favourite is still Warwick Castle in Warwick...

Acknowledgement of items used in this Blog from my archive...

I often feature items from older Motorcycle magazines, including photographs and other drawings, cartoons etc in my Blog. Where possible I acknowledge their source. These items are often from "MotorCycle" and "MotorCycling", and the current copyright holders are Mortons Motor Cycle Media. I thank them for their use.

Where other sources are used such as Fox Photos, Keystone Press and other now defunct press agencies from the UK and elsewhere I attempt to acknowledge their source.

You are free to use any item from my Blog, but PLEASE give credit to the source.

DQ on his Velo Special

Velo Thruxton at speed

About Me

I've motorcycled since the early 1960s...both in Australia, the USA,NZ and UK to where my long suffering wife and I rode a 1972 BMW R50/5 motorcycle via the overland route through Asia in 1974. Careers in Animal Physiology and Automotive Instruments and now finally semi retired into music...as a banjoist in Trad./Dixieland Jazz bands.
Life for me is very interesting......